The complicated dilemma of foreign refugees in Ukraine: they have nowhere to go

kyiv, Ukraine — It had been just three months since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, but Marwa Yehea wanted to return to her home in kyiv.

Yehea, 31, originally from Syria, had fled Kiev with her two daughters in February, when the war began. In those days she was pregnant with her third child and they spent weeks in Germany.

But she was determined to be back home when her son was born. In May 2022, they had returned to the Ukrainian capital in time for her birth.

“The war is not over and the psychological toll it takes is exhausting,” Yehea said last summer. “But you get used to it. And we especially, as Syrians who came out of the war, well, we are safe here.”

In the decades before the Russian invasion, kyiv had become an increasingly cosmopolitan city, a destination for international students and professionals seeking to make a life in Europe. Before the war, some 293,600 foreigners resided permanently in Ukraine, according to government figures from 2020.

Some have made the decision to continue living here, even as war grips the country and millions have fled. In some cases, returning to their home country is impossible and they have remained in Ukraine rather than becoming refugees again. Others are not willing to abandon the lives they have built in the Country.

“We were happy here, our lives here were good,” said Yehea, who had been living in Ukraine since 2012.

International students have also returned, weighing an affordable education against the risks of war. In 2020, about 76,500 foreign students were enrolled in Ukrainian universities.

Wang Zheng, 23, originally from China, had been studying in Ukraine since 2017 and had just started his master's degree when the war broke out. He returned to China and continued his studies online, but returned to kyiv last spring. His education “is the most important thing,” he said.

kyiv is where he met his girlfriend, Wang Danyang, 26, a Chinese opera singer. She returned to kyiv in July and they now live together. They want to build their lives here, Wang said. “I feel like this is my second homeland,” he said.

Abdaljalil Rejee, a Palestinian doctor who has lived in Ukraine for 20 years, also wants to stay. He left for Britain with his wife and two children when the war began, but returned to kyiv in mid-2022, eager to get back to work and get his children back to school. In kyiv their lives have resumed a rhythm of normality, despite the war. “We have options, but we prefer to be in Ukraine,” Rejee said. “We know our future is here.”

Even some whose life here has not been ideal say Ukraine is their home. Abdullah Hossein al-Rabii, owner of a Middle Eastern restaurant in kyiv, arrived in 2013 after fleeing Syria. “I'm not stuck in Ukraine,” he said. “I do not want to go”.

But like thousands of other Syrians, al-Rabii was never granted full refugee status by Ukraine. Rather, it has been granted temporary protection.

But al-Rabii, who is married to a Ukrainian woman, is determined to stay.

“The worst thing is that before you were a refugee, then you fled and then you could be a refugee again,” he said. “This would be the most painful thing.”

MEGAN SPECIA. THE NEW YORK TIMES